How To Style a Boho Sleeve Top?

In Australian women’s clothing, sleeves serve plenty of practical reasons. They protect your arms and shoulders while also keeping your skin out of the sun and providing warmth. But beyond their practicality, different sleeves can help to balance silhouettes and enhance the style of a top by adding movement or structure. This is the reason sleeves make such a statement when styling yourself in boho chic.

Boho chic has been around for a couple of hundred years and has been a representation of self-expression and the rejection of conventional ideals. It is a style that lets you take control and play around with different layers of textures, colours, and patterns. There is no single way to dress boho, but there are a few tips to make sure your outfit is boho chic.

Types of Boho Sleeve Tops

Throughout women’s clothing in Australia, a boho sleeve top can come in a range of different styles. The types of tops are usually unrestrictive to wear, like blouses, tunics, smocks, off-shoulder tops, and peasant tops. Boho tops are typically quite voluminous cotton tops in Australia with open necklines and embellishments such as embroidery, lace, or smocking, but it is the statement sleeves of a boho top that gives them their chic. These are the different types of sleeves found on boho tops and the reason why they are so flattering: 

Bell

The bell sleeve, also known as a peasant sleeve and similar to a trumpet sleeve, is a long sleeve that is fitted around the shoulder and upper arm but flares out to the wrist, just like a bell. Bell sleeves are very feminine and are excellent at balancing out your silhouette, whether you are rounded, triangle, hourglass, or rectangular. They are a universally flattering sleeve when paired with the right bottoms. 

Bishop

The bishop sleeve on a boho sleeve top is a long sleeve that is gathered at the bottom with a cuff. They are full sleeves all the way down and cinched at the wrist. They are similar to a balloon sleeve, but instead, a balloon sleeve is tapered along the forearm. The bishop sleeve is perfect for balancing your silhouette and extremely flattering if you have a triangle shape because they add more volume to your shoulders and arms. 

Butterfly

The butterfly sleeve is very elegant and flattering for all body shapes. It is a sleeve that starts at the shoulder and then widens along the forearm, not quite reaching the wrist. They are similar sleeves to the batwing sleeve; however, the batwing sleeve has a more accentuated wing shape starting further up the arm.

Lantern

The lantern sleeve is a long sleeve that balloons out between the elbow and the wrist and then gathers again around the wrist to form, as the name implies, a lantern-like shape. Lantern sleeves are feminine and dainty because they highlight the narrow, delicate wrist area. 

Puff

A puff sleeve is gathered around the shoulders and then puffs out before it then cuffs. They are typically short sleeves, finishing somewhere between just below your shoulder and above your elbow. Puff sleeves add more volume to the shoulders, which makes them excellent at balancing out a silhouette.

Flutter

A flutter sleeve is almost just a shorter and wider version of the butterfly sleeve. The flutter sleeve is a loose-fitting, tapered sleeve that falls in folds over the shoulder and upper arm. The sleeve got its name because it is quite literally a piece of fabric fluttering over your arm. The wide hem on the sleeve is the reason these sleeves are so flattering because it creates contrast making your arms look slim and long in comparison.

How To Style a Boho Sleeve Top

A boho top with statement sleeves is a perfect item in women’s clothing in Australia for balancing out your silhouette and creating a flattering outfit; it all just comes down to knowing your body shape and what to wear to create balance. Here are some style ideas for your boho sleeve top that will create a balanced silhouette while embracing boho chic:

Casual

For a casual and comfortable, yet effortlessly stylish, boho outfit that is ideal for working from home or wearing around town running errands is to pair your boho sleeve top with your favourite pair of jeans- distressed or faded denim fits into the boho chic. This outfit can work particularly well for those of us who have a triangle body shape because the statement sleeves of the boho top will add volume to the shoulders, balancing out your silhouette.

This outfit can be worn with your comfiest pair of boots, with or without a heel. Brown leather boots will work best to suit the boho style of natural materials and earth-toned colours. To jazz up the outfit a little bit more, wear footwear that has tassels or add some jewellery. Bracelet stacks and long necklaces made from wood, silver, aged gold, or beads play into the boho look and can also work great to elongate your silhouette. 

A little bit fancier

The boho chic can be incredibly feminine and elegant to wear, particularly with a boho sleeve top that has embroidery detailing, lace, or beautiful statement sleeves. For an outfit that you can wear to a lunch date, out to dinner, or even to a casual wedding, pair your boho sleeve top with a maxi skirt.

When pairing you’re boho sleeve top that has statement sleeves with a maxi skirt, you will need to be careful with how voluminous your outfit may become. To balance your silhouette while wearing boho tops with fuller sleeves, such as lantern and bishop sleeves, wear a slimmer-fitting maxi skirt with a belt to accentuate your waist. While sleeves that are shorter, such as flutter and puff sleeves, or less full sleeves, such as bell sleeves, work well with a more voluminous maxi skirt. Just be sure to balance your silhouette in a way that compliments your body shape.

As well as balancing your silhouette, you will also need to balance the textures, patterns, and colours within your outfit. The boho chic allows for plenty of options to play around with different colours, textures, and patterns; however, when wearing a bold print, balance it with a smaller print or a solid earthy-coloured item.  This will help you to look balanced while still embracing the boho vibrancy.

Adding accessories to your outfit can take it from bland to glammed. Wearing multiple long necklaces with a maxi skirt and boho top can help to elongate your silhouette and add a touch of glamour to your outfit.